Columbus is a massive city geographically so gotta take into account per capita metrics).I will message you separately to continue the convo on Cleveland.

The HELOC funds can serve as your down payment AND a vehicle to massively accelerate mortgage paydown (and even paying off the truck) on the new STR property.

Generally speaking, you're paying for this feature in the form of higher-than-market interest rates, and interest-accruing balances that are not often paid down. with FHA allowing for 3.5% down, conventional allowing for 5% down (and 3% down in some cases as well), the barrier to entry is not massive. if my mother were asking these questions, this is what i would advise her. small down payment, but a significantly better loan IMO. hope this was helpful! 

Side note, as a Journey, you have a massive advantage over others in this arena.

Eh should put a pretty massive prepayment penalty in to the deal if he doesn’t want to owe the taxes. 

Investors that could access high-leverage loans that would qualify based on STR income on acquisitions could jump-start a scaled portfolio that would enable massive wealth — and allow them to outbid and outmaneuver the competition. 

There are charter schools in the area that that you could target the areas in the direct vicinity of for about even cash-flow and massive upside appreciation potential.

Really all over Ohio we're seeing massive growth and alot of companies setting up shop to offer their employees affordability and the nice "midwestern" life. 

One was modest, the other was a massive 30% bump.  

If you don't find the source of the leak, you may end up with massive water & mold damage.